1. Field:
The invention is in the field of devices used to cool food or beverages, particularly for cooling individual portions of such food or beverage in an open container.
2. State of the Art:
Because of the custom of drinking mass quantites of cold liquids in our present society, great expense and effort is exerted in cooling and maintaining beverages in a cool state. In situations where it is impractical to carry modern refrigeration equipment, it is necessary to use ice, other similar materials, or instualted containers to maintain beverages in a cool state. However, ice and similar material only last for relatively short periods of time and must be continuously replenished. Similarly, insulated containers only maintain their contents cool for a similar relatively short period. In many instances when a cold beverage is desired, if an already cold beverage is not on hand and it is not desired to dilute the beverage by the addition of ice cubes, it is impractical to chill a warm beverage for immediate consumption because normal refrigeration units or so-called "ice chests" require time to permit the convection cooling process to fully chill the beverage to a suitable temperature. This is also true for other types of foods which require chilling prior to eating. It would thus be desirable to have a device that could be inserted into a beverage or other food within an open container and that could rapidly chill the container contents when desired without the need for external refrigeration units or "ice chests".
Various attempts have been made to provide a cooling device within a food container that can be activated when it is desired to cool the contents of the container. Such devices have generally used an expanding gas or a chemical reaction to provide the required cooling. These devices, however, are built into the food container, adding expense to the container, and are not usable for the cooling food or a beverage is such food or beverage is not on hand in such a container. An example of such a container is shown in pending application for U.S. Pat. No. 881,386 which has been assigned to the same assignee as the present application.
The need remains for a device that is easily portable, that can be actuated at any time cooling of a food or beverage is desired, and does not require a special container for such food or beverage.